Microsoft issued a three-week ultimatum on Saturday for Yahoo to accept its US$44.6 billion takeover offer or face a hostile battle for the support of the Internet giant’s shareholders.
In an open letter to the Yahoo board of directors, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer accused the company of avoiding serious negotiations over its Feb. 1 offer and warned that any further delays could result in a less attractive offer for Yahoo.
“We believe now is the time for our respective companies to authorize teams to sit down and negotiate a definitive agreement,” Ballmer said in the letter, which was posted on Microsoft’s Web site.
“If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo board,” the letter said.
The was no immediate response from Yahoo to Ballmer’s letter, which came in the wake of a reported meeting earlier last week between officials from the two companies.
The ultimatum was issued two months after the software giant’s unsolicited offer of US$31 a share for Yahoo, a 62 percent premium on Yahoo’s share price at the time.
Microsoft hopes that by taking over Yahoo, it can gain ground on Google’s overwhelming dominance of the lucrative Internet advertising business.
Yahoo, Google’s closest competitor, has steadily lost market share in the business, leaving it vulnerable to cash-rich Microsoft’s takeover effort.
But Yahoo rejected the offer, at first searching for a possible white knight partner — Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp was considered — to help fend off Microsoft, and then undertaking moves like postponing a deadline to nominate new directors to the Yahoo board to stall the bid.
On March 18 it said Yahoo was worth at least US$40 share – US$10 billion higher than Microsoft’s offer — and announced that it has a new three-year financial and strategic plan to restore cash flow and boost profits.
“Yahoo is positioned for accelerated financial growth — we have a powerful consumer brand, a huge global audience and a highly profitable operating model,” chief executive Jerry Yang (楊致遠) said in a statement at the time.
“Yahoo is poised to capture growth in display advertising where we believe growth will be greatest,” Yang said.
But Ballmer said in his letter on Saturday that the US economic slump and sagging stock market, if anything, had hurt Yahoo’s value.
In addition, he said, “public indicators suggest that Yahoo’s search and page view shares have declined.”
He also accused Yahoo’s board of avoiding serious discussions and of adopting plans that will raise the cost of Microsoft’s takeover.
“By any fair measure, the large premium we offered in January is even more significant today. We believe that the majority of your shareholders share this assessment,” he said.
“If we are forced to take an offer directly to your shareholders, that action will have an undesirable impact on the value of your company from our perspective which will be reflected in the terms of our proposal,” the letter said.
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
The Philippines yesterday criticized a “high-risk” maneuver by a Chinese vessel near the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) in a rare incident involving warships from the two navies. The Scarborough Shoal — a triangular chain of reefs and rocks in the contested South China Sea — has been a flash point between the countries since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012. Taiwan also claims the shoal. Monday’s encounter took place approximately 11.8 nautical miles (22km) southeast” of the Scarborough Shoal, the Philippine military said, during ongoing US-Philippine military exercises that Beijing has criticized as destabilizing. “The Chinese frigate BN 554 was
RSS